Sharon Horner

Biography

Dr. Horner received her PhD in Nursing and her MSN in Parent-Child Nursing from the Medical College of Georgia. Dr. Horner's research focuses on improving health of families with children. As principal investigator (PI) or co-PI, she has been awarded $7.6 million from extramural funding sources and collaborated as a co-investigator (Co-I) on projects totaling an additional $8 million. Most of the awards are from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute for Nursing Research, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, as well as Housing & Urban Development and the Environmental Protection Agency. 

She recently completed a study funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Institute for Nursing Research and National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (10R01 NR007770) to test her intervention in a stratified randomized control trial for her primary work with school-aged children with asthma and their families who live in rural areas. The focus of the intervention is to improve asthma management behaviors of parents and children; reduce asthma symptom frequency and duration, and lung inflammation. The study found significant improvements in children’s asthma-related quality of life, asthma self-management behaviors, skill in using a metered dose inhaler, and reductions in asthma severity, hospitalizations, and emergency department visits.

Dr. Horner is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and was inducted into the Sigma International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame in 2022. She held the Dolores V. Sands Chair in Nursing Research from 2011-2024. She has been an active member of the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists and was elected to the 3-year sequence of leadership roles of President-elect, President, and Immediate Past President (2015-2018). She has been honored as recipient National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists, 2014 Sue B. Davidson Service Award, the Southern Nursing Research Society 2013 Award for Research in Minority Health, and the Texas Rural Health Association, 2013 Researcher of the Year.